Winter Boat Projects - Interior Remodel

One of the things we love about the newer boats out there today is the materials used in the interior. The Teak and Holly floors with softer feeling earth tone vinyls has really appealed to us. Since our boat has proven herself to us on our big trip, and we see no need to upgrade in size at this time, we have decided to remodel our beloved Seapickle II!

First order of business was to have the V berth cushions recovered in a new vinyl material called  Naugasoft. This vinyl has been tested for excellent abrasion resistance, ease of maintenance, and a -20 deg. cold crack resistance! It will be replacing a brown fabric material that in my opinion has kind of a course feel to it. We had a local upholsterer at NWI Upholstery recover the cushions, and they turned out excellent! The floors are Teak and Holly flooring by Plasteak. They were surprisingly easy to cut to fit based on patterns I made using the old carpets. I still need to glue them down, but at least I got all the cutting/trimming out of the way now.


 
Before:

After:

Recovered cushions piled up ready to be put in the boat!

There is still a lot more work to be done but it sure has been nice to fight cabin fever, slip under the winter covers and get some work done.

Strictly Sail, Chicago

No we do not have a sailboat... but... you never know! We might want to retire on one in the Caribbean someday, so we're trying to learn a bit about them now! We had a great time at the Strictly Sail show at Navy Pier with Ben's parents, Bill & Kathy.

We found one boat that we really liked, even though it's a bit smaller than our boat. It's a Seaward 26 by Hake Yachts (pictured above & below). Small enough to learn on, and still enough space to trailer and spend a week or so on comfortably. It's a possibility for the future, since there's a lot of areas we want to explore, and it would be easier in some cases to trailer a boat. Not for awhile though... we're having way too much fun with Seapickle II for now!

Chicago Boat Show

The Chicago Boat Show at McCormick Place is becoming an annual tradition for us, and something we really look forward to as winter begins to drag on. These are our friends Bill & Mina on a decked out pontoon boat that I think they should buy as use as the party boat at Boaters Beach! We enjoyed the boat show even more than usual this year... because we're not actually looking for a boat this time, and could just hang out, drink beer, and browse around for ideas to add to our Seapickle II.

We were also able to meet up with some boating friends - Joe & Miranda and Joe & Pat - and start to make plans for summer get-togethers. I think we're looking forward to this summer more than any summer ever before, if that's possible!! We had such a great time with our cruiser last year, and this year we hope to make it even better! Just a few more months :-)